Harold Bishop returns to Erinsborough next week on Neighbours in the UK, just in time for Toadie and Melanie’s nuptials.
These scenes will begin airing in the UK on July 4 and in Australia on July 14 respectively.
Seven years have passed since Harold Bishop, better known as “Jelly Belly,” left Erinsborough (Ian Smith). He returns to town the following week, the first of several returning cast members who will be visiting Ramsay Street during Neighbours’ last month!
It’s usually a big deal when Harold comes back to town, and this time is no exception.
On Wednesday, July 6, when Karl (Alan Fletcher) and Susan (Jackie Woodburne) are confronted by his unexpected arrival, everything begins. Naturally, there is joy all around, especially among residents of Ramsay Street who have lived there for a while.
But it’s obvious right away that Harold’s stay will be filled with turmoil.
Amy Greenwood’s (Jacinta Stapleton) search for love is where it all starts.
She’s had a difficult time finding true love, which is unfortunate. The love of her life, Lance Wilkinson (Andrew Bibby), has gone on, and her most recent romance was a failure. She has been married to and divorced from two gay men.
She feels like she has tried everything, and as time passes, she begins to wonder why she hasn’t yet found Mr. Right. Perhaps he is hiding right in front of her.
Zara (Freya van Dyke), Amy’s intelligent daughter, questioned whether Amy really had feelings for Toadie a few weeks ago (Ryan Moloney). Amy quickly denied the claim and made an effort to distance herself from him, but it didn’t take long for her to return for his solace.
Zara (Freya van Dyke), Amy’s intelligent daughter, questioned whether Amy really had feelings for Toadie a few weeks ago (Ryan Moloney). Amy quickly denied the claim and made an effort to distance herself from him, but it didn’t take long for her to return for his solace.
However, the timing is terrible. Only a few weeks after Melanie rejected Toadie’s first proposal, Toadie and Melanie (Lucinda Cowden) have recently announced their engagement. It appears that their choice to live together was just what they needed to advance their relationship.
Amy avoids the happy couple since she is obviously devastated by their news. When Zara notices this, her heart bleeds, and she then involves Harold in her concerns.
Zara laments the circumstance to Harold and says she thinks Toadie and Amy ought to be together. Harold doesn’t seem too thrilled about Toadie’s most recent engagement, so Zara starts to wonder if he shares that belief.
Zara tries to draw Harold in to assist her break up Toadie and Melanie’s relationship after noticing his concern about it. Fuddy-duddy Harold naturally doesn’t want to get involved in Zara’s antics, but he promises to check to see if her worries are valid.
Harold pulls Amy aside and asks if she thinks Melanie and Toadie would make a suitable match. He seemed to be questioning Melanie’s dependability.
Harold is somewhat encouraged when Amy praises Melanie to him, but it’s obvious that he isn’t yet persuaded despite Amy’s ability to set aside her own affections for Toadie.
Zara listens in and hears everything Amy says about Melanie, and even though it appears like Amy is content to admit defeat, Zara isn’t going to quit interfering just yet.
Harold Bishop doesn’t need an introduction to long-time viewers of the program.
Harold came to Erinsborough for the first time in Episode 415 (30th January 1987) and was just after Madge (Anne Charleston). Many Ramsay Street neighbors, especially the Clarkes, Des (Paul Keane) and Daphne (Elaine Smith), with whom they shared management of the Coffee Shop duties, benefited from the couple’s influence.
Harold had two kids, Kerry (Linda Hartley-Clark) and David, before relocating to Erinsborough (Kevin Harrington). Both have their own unique eccentricities. Kerry, a fervent environmentalist, was shot and killed by a duck hunter while she was eight months pregnant. This grieved her husband Joe (Mark Little), but it also led to the two men’s close relationship.
David is the cardboard cut out of Harold when it comes to his principles and the way he holds himself. The pair had a fractured relationship, which was furthered by Harold’s disappearance, however they eventually reconcile. David, his wife Liljana (Marcella Russo) and daughter Serena (Lara Sacher) moved to Ramsay Street in 2003, but were killed in a plane crash two years later.
Harold and Madge took a brief vacation in 1991, but it was tainted by tragedy when Harold washed off some rocks and only his glasses were left. Five years later, it was discovered that he had lived, albeit having amnesia, and was now employed by the Salvation Army.
He and Madge quickly made amends, and over the course of the following few years, they ran the Coffee Shop once more, as well as Grease Monkeys and fostered Paul (Jansen Spencer) and Tad (Jonathon Dutton). Sadly, tragedy struck once more when Madge was found to have pancreatic cancer in 2001, ten years after Harold vanished, and passed away not long after.
Harold was heartbroken, but he enjoyed the relationship between Rosie (Maggie Millar), Valda (Joan Sydney), and Ruby (Maureen Edwards).
Harold, however, experienced happiness once more when his son and family, then his granddaughter Sky (Stephanie McIntosh), came in with him.
After the Lassiters Complex burned down, Harold was forced to run the General Store with Lou (Tom Oliver), care for Sky when she learned she was pregnant, and fight prostate cancer over the ensuing years. In 2009, he departed Erinsborough in preparation for a nomadic existence.
While attending the non-wedding of Daniel Robinson (Tim Phillipps) and Amber Turner (Jenna Rosenow), in which he had a vision of Madge, who persuaded him to let her go and actually go forward, he temporarily returned in 2011 to marry his new wife Carolyn Johnstone. He then returned again in 2015.
Only recently with the announcement of Neighbours’ cancellation, did one of the show’s writers and directors come forward with some very interesting information on a Harold Bishop story that almost came to fruition.
Dee Bliss (Madeleine West), who met a fate akin to Harold’s in 2003 when she was driven into Bass Strait after getting married to Toadie, was going to be a part of Harold’s comeback in 2011, Lucas Testro said on Twitter.
Dan Bennett, a former script executive, had tweeted, and Lucas responded:
“Ian Smith had a contract to come back. However, he had a requirement that Harold would be returning to marry “an attractive young woman” — at least, this is what the producers told us in the story room. Except for Ian, everyone else regarded this as a terrible idea for quite obvious reasons. But since they wanted Harold to come back for a different reason, the producers weren’t concerned about it. Harold had discovered Dee Bliss, and they were certain Ian would concur. We were thrilled. Ian was ecstatic. As good as signed, according to Madeleine West, who was said to be quite interested.
“We came up with the idea that Harold had met Dee while traveling and volunteering in a high-end area of Australia. She had escaped the automobile crash, washed up on a beach miles from Toadie, and then set off on a wandering adventure that finally led to her travelling aimlessly across the nation. Amnesia was prohibited since it was a soap opera cliche, we were informed. I recall someone vehemently attempting to persuade the producers that “fugue condition” was distinct. Quite humorous I don’t remember, but that might have even been the reason we chose to use.
“Dee’s reappearance would be the final hurdle for Toadie and Sonya just as they appeared to be headed toward marriage. Week after week, we’ve been asking, “And Madeleine’s signed, right?” We are told not to worry about it. After two or three weeks of planning, an emergency meeting occurs: Madeleine refuses to do it. Calamity. Ian Smith is now stating that we must return to the “Harold’s marrying a young lady story” he was promised because we are unable to proceed with the Dee story. The following part barely lasted a week, so I don’t remember much about it. I think we tried to twist Ian’s tale so that Harold got engaged to a girl again, but the regulars found out she was a ruse. The news arrives.
When I return a week later, IAN HATE THIS. Additionally, our time is almost up.
“The producers and Ian consent to a partner who is younger. And I’m put in a last-minute second-floor room with producer Alan Hardy, screenplay editor Stu Gaunt, and a new plot for Harold’s comeback. Troy, Sonya’s ex-boyfriend, is thought to have taken over from Toadie’s ex after this. Troy may not have been there during those sessions, but given the date and purpose of the story, it makes plausible that he did. He might possibly have been an option that had been floated around for a while, and we grabbed it for this place? I’m unsure. ages ago.
I do recall that Harold’s sweetheart was referred to as a corporate lawyer who had changed careers and became wealthy through her own herbal tea company. We referred to her as “a Pamela Rabe type” since she was a beautiful woman who was proud of her bohemian side. I named her Carolyn Johnstone in honor of my ex-girlfriend, who I was attempting to get back at the time, as I described in another post. With that tale to tell, I reasoned that Carolyn would never have to pay for a drink in England once more, and who wouldn’t want to be Pamela Rabe at age 50? Warning: this contains a spoiler about Carolyn. Then, as my first-ever solo directing gig, I was given the task of directing the block that included Harold’s wedding. Thus, I would suddenly be planning Harold and my ex-wedding. girlfriend’s which was somewhat foolish!
“And it turns out that the crazy part of shooting that block didn’t even begin there. It was constantly on the verge of chaos—last-minute cast changes, performers going silent in the middle of a scene—but it was also the greatest fun I’ve ever had at work. Story for a different time
